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Q: Hypomelanistic Gene
Posted By:

heyzookeeper99

Hey Guys, 

So I tried to post this as a blog but an error occurred and no one can see it so hopefully this one goes a little better.

I need your help I am thinking about buying a lemon yellow hypo woma python female to breed with my male sunburst woma python the breeder thinks the hypo gene is recessive but he said when she was hatched she was lighter than the rest and got even better with age he said he did not hold on to any of her babies but he had reports from ppl who bought womas off of him say they found similar lighter offspring which makes me think it could be co dominant but im not sure and need any input form you guys or anyone, also i feel whatever it does come out to be it will be a good addition to my breeding project regardless, but what do you guys think. 


Points: 250
Topics: Genetics
Tags: Breeding, Genetics, Hypo, Python, Woma
Administrative: Show/Hide

Member Comment 11/16/2011 5:52:17 PM

browncoatbreeding

did some reading and this was the only thing I came up with:

In woma pythons, the hypo gene is recessive and is commonly known as "black headed" and the bands are orangish-brown in color. There are a lot of pictures on the site as well. http://www.pythons.co.uk/animaldt.asp?ID=18
 
Accepted Answer 11/16/2011 6:26:03 PM

aSnakeLovinBabe

I already answered this in your blog, but here it is here too.

there are many different types of hypomelanistic, sometimes two or three different types within the same species! Hypomelanistic simply means the animal still has some melanin, but in a reduced amount compared to the norm for the species. It could vary anywhere from the animal is slightly lighter than a normal, or the animal is extremely light to where it almost looks like an amel.... a so called "T positive" albino is also technically hypomelanistic... the animal retains some melanin, but in a reduced amount. This is why across different species, traits that appear to do the same thing to the snake (such as lavendar-type "albinos") are not always named the same, because there is some gray area and no real way to draw a line. Hypomelanism can be recessive, incomplete dominant... not inheritable at all... line bred, just one part of a gene (for instance the motley corn, it makes the animal hypomelanistic as well as alters the pattern) or a locality thing. Many names of different morph animals are actually just different strains of hypomelanism. The ghost ball python for one... that's a recessive form of hypomelanism. The lavendar california kingsnake, the schuett albino eastern garter snake... the wild populations of light colored florida water snakes... all different forms of hypomelanism. Hypomelanistic is not meant to be the term for a single gene, it is merely a description of the animal that depicts it as having less melanin than the average specimen. But people sometimes use it to name their new morph, whereas others will name it something else... such as lavendar albino... neither is really wrong but it does create confusion for those who do not understand that hypomelanistic is not a set trait that follows any rules and has MANY different expressions and ways of being inherited. It is not the same as say, amelanistic, which to my knowledge, is a single point mutation and has always proven recessive, whether it be snakes, iguanas, humans, or any other creature.

 

To answer your question about the womas.... the answer is until it's bred more and babies are bred back to the parent and siblings are crossed and all that jazz.... there is no way to know and definitely don't make the mistake of telling people it's codominant just because some snakes came out light colored, or especially because you heard they did but never saw for yourself.

It is probably inheritable in SOME form, but it is up to a responsible breeder to breed that snake and do all the necessary trials to figure out how. IMO, get her, and breed her to a standard, normal male. It's not always the best idea to cross a potential morph animal that has not been proven to something that's not totally normal... because then, how do you know what is actually going on? If you breed her to a standard male and you get a bunch of babies that right off the bat are really light colored, then you can say well, it's probably not recessive. but then you need to go a step further... try to breed two light animals together to see if there is a super form. If you end up getting a true super form, the trait will actually be classified as incomplete dominant (codominant is technically not the right word to use). The only way to know if you have a true super form is to breed your supposed super form to a normal. if you did this and you got ALL hypo babies, then you could say you have a true super form.

 

If you bred her to a normal male, and you got nothing but normal looking babies, then you need to hold the babies back. That's where the last guy went wrong. If it is recessive, it will take another breeding, of a son back to the mother or between two siblings, to find that out. It could also be a gene that takes time to appear as the snake grows. These are rare but they do occur... same way erythristic garter snakes start off totally normal and then turn flaming red by a year of age.

Furthermore, if you bred this snake to a normal and you got some hypo looking babies, and then you bred two "hypos" together and you don't get any super form, then the morph can be called dominant because all it takes for the snake to be a hypo, is for it to inherit one copy of the gene, but there is no super form. This is the case with the spider ball python.

If you do a bunch of breeding and you get nothing out of it that seems genetic, then line breeding may be the only way to refine the trait. This involves generations of breeding animals from a line selectively based upon their coloration. It is tricky, and if it's done right, you occasionally have to outcross to make sure you are not inbreeding too heavily, but you must be scrupulous about the animal you outcross to so as not to defeat all of your line breeding efforts.

 

No matter HOW you do it... it's a project that will take YEARS and multiple generations of snakes and a lot of dedication and diligent record keeping.

I hope to god the mini-book I just wrote helps you in some way...

 
Member Comment 11/16/2011 6:46:57 PM

Aimee

+83 to Shannon. well-said.

but I have to respond to BCB - Black Headed Pythons (Aspidites melanocephalus) are NOT hypo Woma Pythons (Aspidites ramsayi).  they're entirely separate species, and if you were to make a hypo Woma, it wouldn't have a black head -

 
Member Comment 11/16/2011 7:09:15 PM

abi21491

As Shannon said, sometimes there are multiple forms of Hypo within a species. I have no clue what is going on with your Woma, but further breeding is the only way to know for sure. With ball pythons, sometimes a het will be lighter/brighter than say a normal, but it is far from being a true Hypo. If she is the recessive form of Hypo out of two normal parents they had to be hets, and unless she accidentally also bred to a het that would explain some of her offspring being lighter, but without pics and documentation I think it's hard to say. Breed her :)

 
Member Comment 11/16/2011 7:27:30 PM

browncoatbreeding

 :) I have no idea what I'm talking about with these little guys lol thanks for the clarification Aimee/Shannon!!

 
Author Comment 11/16/2011 10:56:02 PM

heyzookeeper99

Shannon you have been so HELPFUL, and sorry i didn't add a ton of info I was just heading out to work. I believe thanks to shannon and everybody else this is gonna be my one big breeding project, I have been looking for my big breeding project to work on for years and years and really make a dent in the herpetoculture world and I think this is it. I know its gonna take a lot of work and good record keeping but I think with my determination and passion I can make some head way in the the genetics of woma pythons which I don't think anyone else out there has really done that much with, so again thank you everybody especially shannon and her mini novel and wish me luck on this outstanding project.

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